Southern California -- this just in

The federal government today awarded Los Angeles a $60-million grant to help modernize the city’s electrical power system.

The money will be used for “smart grid" demonstration projects at USC and UCLA. The projects will allow the city’s Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the nation, to use advanced meters and other technology at the universities to chart how power is being consumed, forecast demand and potential outages, and seek ways to reduce energy use.

The projects will include efforts to integrate plug-in hybrid electric vehicles onto the grid.

The grant is among $620 million that the U.S. Department of Energy awarded for demonstration projects across the country and is funded by the federal stimulus program.

“We’ve said from the beginning that much of what we’re doing here in Los Angeles can and will be replicated nationally," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said during a morning news conference with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at Los Angeles Trade and Technical College.

Southern California Edison Co. received a $40-million grant for a smart grid demonstration project in Irvine. Edison also received a $24.9-million grant to test utility-scale lithium-ion batteries to store energy from windmills in Tehachapi.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. received a $25-million grant to test underground “compressed air energy storage" near Bakersfield.